Educational Visits

On Thursday 28th November, children from Year 5 and 6 attended the AIM High Maths day to challenge their mathematical thinking.

On Friday 22nd November 2024, Year 6 visited the Natural History Museum. They took part in a volcanoes workshop where they helped to replicate a volcanic eruption.

Some of the children in years 5 and 6 enjoyed a day spent with a professional poet, Neal Zetter. They created their own poetry and learnt how to edit and improve their writing too.

Year 3 were lucky enough to take part in a workshop hosted by Elys Dolan at Plaistow Library. Year 3 helped Elys to create a new character for her story Rex, Dinosaur in Disguise. Children had a fantastic time meeting and working with Elys.

To start off our school year, Year 5’s from both St Helen’s and St Joaquim's went to Ayelford to discover the historic sanctuary where St Simon Stock’s relic is kept. While there we were able to join in different activities to find out more about Aylesford and why it is so important. We were able to walk around the actual shrine and find out about its history, draw our interpretation of the shrine itself, pray the rosary and understand the importance of different mysteries in the rosary. Not only that but we were able to visit the shop and put our Maths knowledge to good use. To end what was a lovely day we had a Mass with both schools, especially as it was the start of the year, it was one way we all come together and pray collectively for a good year.

Together with the Year 6 pupils from St Helen’s and St Joachim's attended their annual Science Camp at Kingsdown in Kent. The children spent the week completing a range of science lessons which involved investigating habitats, learning about coastal erosion and beach combing. They also took on some traditional camping activities such as orienteering, Forest School, and archery. The children also had the opportunity to venture out on fact finding walks to places like Deal and take part in some sea swimming. Children also walked the coastal path along the white cliffs to St Margaret's at See, the nearest point of England to France. On our final full day we took part in a prayer service to reflect on the whole week and the reasons behind it. Before returning to school the children visited Howletts Wildlife Park where they further developed their understanding of animals and their habitats. The children enjoyed the camp for the science but also for the new friendships they formed with pupils from each school.

The local residents wanted to prevent fly tipping on our streets and together with Newham Council, decided that creating an art mural would be a good way to do this. A few children from St Helen's spent two days helping the Street artist ‘Otto Schade’ to create a beautiful elephant mural in the local area. The children worked hard to scrape the old paint off the wall before painting it black. They then had the opportunity to have a go at learning how to use spray paint before helping the street artist to varnish the finished mural. The children had lots of fun whilst helping the community and were praised for being excellent, well behaved and polite students!

In October, Year 5 went to the Unicorn Theatre to watch a production of the play Toto. Tim Crouch’s immersive new play is a tender and powerful story about listening, friendship and finding hope in the darkest of places was a unique theatre experience. The show used binaural audio and put emphasis on language and sound rather than visual representation. The audience wore lightweight over-ear headphones throughout.

In November, Year 4 went to the Unicorn Theatre to watch a production of the play Odd and the Forest Giants. Combining extraordinary magic and humour, this spectacular festive tale is about finding friends in unlikely places, and the courage you never knew you had. A World Premiere stage adaptation by Robert Alan Evans and directed by the Unicorn’s new Artistic Director Rachel Bagshaw.

Year 6 visited the Imperial War Museum which linked to their learning on World War 2. The children took part in a workshop in which they made documentaries about the artefacts and exhibits that were important to them. The children enjoyed making their films and exploring the WW2 exhibit and made links to the book they had been studying ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’.